Celtic are not going to ditch scouting. Where does The Record get this rubbish?

The Daily Record is running a piece today about Paul Tisdale, and the headline suggests that Celtic might ditch scouting altogether in favour of a system that focuses entirely on data and analytics to identify players.

Let’s be honest—I’ve never heard such nonsense in my life.

The rationale for the article appears to be rooted in Tisdale’s comments about his time at Exeter City, where they didn’t have a scouting department for 11 years.

He regarded it as unnecessary.

Well, let’s break that down. When you’re managing a club like Exeter, a lower-league side with a limited budget, it’s understandable why you might not want a team of scouts jetting all over the place. Scouting is expensive, and at that level, data analysis may well be the more pragmatic route.

At the lower end of the football pyramid, there’s a huge pool of players available. There’s less pressure to find the absolute best of the best because the margins aren’t as razor-thin. If you’re looking for a guy who’s got that extra 1% that sets him apart from the rest, data can be a useful tool. You can probably get by using statistics and analytics to find a player who can do a job at a club like Exeter.

But when you start moving up to the higher levels of football, the game changes drastically. You’re not just looking for players who can “do a job” anymore; you’re searching for that X factor that can make a difference in high-pressure moments.

At a club like Celtic, it’s not just about running the numbers. You want to go out and see these players with your own eyes. You want to know how they handle the pressure, how they react in tough situations, and whether they’ve got the mental toughness to succeed at the highest level. It’s about more than just stats. A scout can see how a player performs on a cold Wednesday night at a tricky away ground, something that data alone can’t tell you.

Brendan Rodgers has said this many times.

Data is an essential part of the process, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle. Once the data identifies potential signings, that’s when scouts come in. They go and watch the player in action, gauge their mentality, and assess the stuff that numbers just don’t show. Scouting departments are essential and most of them now use data in conjunction with the boots on the ground; it’s a well-established process used by top clubs worldwide.

The Record’s article is missing this fundamental point.

Why would a club like Exeter waste money on scouting if they’ve found a method that works for their budget and level of competition? For them, analytics might be a more suitable approach. But to suggest that this system could be directly applied at Celtic is ludicrous. We’re talking about two clubs in completely different worlds. The idea that you can equate managing at Exeter with running the football operation at Celtic Park is pure fantasy. It’s as if they’re trying to compare apples and oranges—or, more accurately, a garden shed to a skyscraper.

The kicker is that halfway through the article, the reporter admits it’s unlikely that Celtic would abandon their scouting network. So, what was the point of the whole piece? It’s nothing but clickbait, designed to grab attention with a headline that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. This kind of journalism is frustrating because it’s so transparently cynical. The writer takes a minor comment from Tisdale, twists it into a baseless speculative story, and then halfway through the piece admits it’s not even likely to happen. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.

Paul Tisdale’s remarks were about a period back in his early years in management. But at the top level, managers like Rodgers know that data only gets you so far. It’s great for giving you a shortlist, for narrowing down the field. But football is still a game played by humans, and you need human scouts to assess the things that numbers can’t capture.

You need to see how a player interacts with his teammates, how he handles adversity, and what his attitude is like off the pitch. These are intangible qualities that can make or break a player’s career at a top club, and no algorithm can account for them.

The Daily Record’s piece is a masterclass in making something out of nothing. They’ve turned what might be considered a throwaway comment from a former lower-league manager into a wild hypothetical about Celtic’s future scouting strategy, only to quietly admit halfway through that it’s not going to happen. It’s lazy journalism, designed to bait readers without offering any real substance.

Celtic will continue to use data, as they should, but they’re not about to abandon one of the key pillars of modern football success, the sort that we have reaped huge dividends from. Tisdale is not going to screw with something that works.